Chasing the scent of Love, Truth, Beauty, and Mirth, wherever it may lead.

Thursday, October 06, 2016

Pence vs. Kaine

The “Winner” Is the Boldest Liar

The
Second Great Debate of 2016, between U.S. Vice Presidential candidates Tim
Kaine (D) and Mike Pence (R), is fluttering off into the pages of history,
where it may ultimately find its place in a footnote. Yet it was the political
event of the first half of this week, with as much coverage or more as the
killer hurricane Matthew.

The
consensus among non-partisan observers is that Pence won on deportment but
Kaine won on substance.

Therefore,
by some inexplicable metric, the conclusion is that Pence won the debate.
Obvious, isn’t it?

Not
really.

Kaine’s
interruptions of Pence annoyed me, to be sure. He could never be as crude as
Donald Trump, but he brought Trump to mind with that style, even if his
interruptions were justified by the outrageous assertions and, alternately,
stone-walling on the other side.

The thing
is, Pence could not have “won” the debate because he could not defend the
indefensible except by bald-faced lies. News reports admit that Pence lied by
flatly denying about half-a-dozen or more statements either he or Trump has
made in the course of this endless campaign. Yet the weight of opinion I’ve
read and seen, liberal and conservative, gives Pence the edge in the debate because
he was so contained and controlled, even as he lied.

Mike Pence

How can
you win a debate when you offer no valid counter-arguments but only a flat
denial of the opponent’s well-supported charges? Or have the rules changed
since I was in college? To win a debate today, do you only have to deny valid
points with so cool and straight a face that people will either believe you or
congratulate you for being such an unflappable liar? Is politics just a well-paying gig
for an actor?

Several
commentators say Pence has his beady blue eyes on the 2020 Presidential race.
They point out that Pence’s popularity as Governor of Indiana was down as he
came up for re-election this year, so he hopped the Trump train out of town and
avoided what might have been a defeat and a dead end to his political
ambitions. Some say those ambitions are high, and that some prominent Republicans
are already talking Pence for President in 2020.

They say
he’s such a cool, conservative cucumber of a guy that he could take the party
back from Trump, who apparently many if not most Republicans have already
assumed will lose this election. Or so they fervently hope.

I’m sure
many contenders are ready to join the slug-fest that’s coming in 2020. It’s
amazing that it’s already started, but, be that as it may, I’m struck by the
political popularity of a man who we know very well is lying through his teeth.
The Nation’s John Nichols writes that
he out-performs Richard Nixon for lying with such a straight face. Even Nixon
gave himself away with tiny facial quirks. Not Pence. He’s cold as ice as he
tells us what we all know to be true is false—just to win an election or as a
consolation setting him up as a prime contender in 2020.

And
that’s a problem for Pence, giving me hope that after losing this election
he’ll join that landfill heap of ambitious men—and women, too—who fall off the
mountain before they reach the top, for which we can all breathe a sigh of
relief—until, perhaps, we see the one who makes it there instead.

Bernie
said Tim Kaine is “a decent guy,” just not as progressive as Bernie would like.
As a resident of Virginia when
Kaine was Governor, I have to agree. I hardly knew he was Governor, he was that
inoffensive, which isn’t to say he was ineffectual. But he’s a party Democrat,
a kind, decent, conscientious guy, and clearly Pence’s intellectual equal and,
frankly, moral superior, criticized by the hot-shot media for lacking style
over substance.

Tim Kaine

We should
by now be used to such disrespect for substance in our public debates, but
substance is nourishing and our public debates are anything but, even though
the problems we face are truly alarming. Among them are politicians who are
vacuous slaves to fund-raising. Why do they do it?

Why does
Mike Pence lie about what his CEO is up to when everyone knows he’s lying? Why
do press secretaries and campaign managers efface themselves in the same way?
Do we lie with a straight face to preserve our own positions or advance our
ambitions? Or just to deny the other side is correct?

It’s
difficult when the men and women who want to be our leaders—make the rules for
us, decide critical matters on our behalf—are so flawed. Just like any one of
us. Think of it. President of the United
States, the most powerful person in
the world, but what makes that so? All the weapons at his/her command. Not
because this person is an example of Homo-Superius, who behaves with an enlightened
hand.

I think
the Presidency, like the leadership in any historical empire, is a matter of
destiny. It’s something you’re born with, it has an inevitability about it,
whether you’re conscious of it, as some are, or you’re not. There are no
accidental Presidents, though we may all be surprised when a particular person
becomes President.

In any
case, it’s said we get the President we deserve, even if we didn’t vote for the
one who wins, which is food for thought for a long time to come.

I hope I
don’t deserve Trump-Pence, and I also hope I don’t deserve Pence in 2020. The
man uses blatant dishonesty to gain his ends. Whatever you think of Kaine’s
politics, you can’t accuse him of that.

I admit
I’m a registered Democrat, but I say Kaine “won” the debate on substance and,
if it means anything, on sincerity, too. I don’t think he’s a great candidate
but I also don’t think he’d stoop to Pence’s low level of argument and
certainly would not support his right-wing policies. It discourages me that
Pence got points for both in the early polls and media. What are people
thinking?

Or is it
just a ploy to keep us all watching the unfolding drama of who will finally be
our leader? Who will take charge over us and shape our history next?